This is my favorite kind of post

I started this blog so I could show record sleeves that I admire; now I live to write posts like this one.

Now maybe I'm in no position to call some one a bad writer but I'll do it anyway. Nicholas Bolduc of the Springfield, MA Republican is a bad writer.

The other day I was reading the paper and came across his review of a Tom Petty concert and the writing was so bad that I went online and looked up everything he'd had published in the Republican. He's (I think) an intern at the paper and has written around twelve articles over the past couple years.

So, as I understand it, he's a young guy, maybe still in, or just finished with, college, and the newspaper gave him the chance to write some reviews. Of course they're not gonna be perfect. The things that bother me are the way that he seems to be going through the motions and not thinking about what he wants to say or how he wants to say it. Nevermind the typos (there are plenty), I see those all the time in newspapers. I'm bothered by the factual mistakes and way that Bolduc uses words without knowing what they really mean. And the worst thing is how he re-uses words and phrases in all his reviews.

In the online edition of the Republican people can log-in and leave comments that show up at the bottom of the page and a couple times the paper's music editor has had to apologize for Bolduc's factual errors.

Let's get right to the Tom Petty review:

The band then transitioned to some of their more recent releases from their new album "Hypnotic Eye" by performing "American Dream Plan B" featuring a strong set of face melting guitar riffs that helped prove that rock is definitely not dead.

First, the sentence is so awkwardly structured and just wrong in a couple place. Plus, get used to the phrase "face melting"; you'll see more of it.

The band played "you Get Me High" displaying to the crowd a screeching, ear shattering guitar solo and great lyrics, proving that after decades in the business these guys can still produce great music.

It might not seem like a big deal but this just doesn't make sense. Does doing something for decades make you get worse at it? Ok, it might sound like I'm being petty but read on, you'll see.

To no one's surprise the crowd quickly called them back on stage for an encore. The band performed "You Wreck Me"...The band then kicked off the night with the 70's classic "American Girl" making it a perfect ending to a perfect night.

"To no one's surprise"- get ready for more of that. But the big thing: Bolduc seems to think that to "kick off" something is to end it. It's not just here that he says it. Stay tuned.

A lot has changed in music since Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rose to take the Rock world by storm in 1976, some have even cynically stated that "Rock is Dead". But this band debunked that misconception last night by proving that they are still as relevant and talented as ever.

Do you "debunk" a misconception? Probably not. But I'm sure it isn't "cynical" to say "Rock is Dead". Let's move on to a Bon Jovi concert.

Bon Jovi

Appearing before another sold out crowd, Bon Jovi failed to disappoint the 10,000 loyal fans who showed up to pay homage to the legendary rock band.

"Failed to disappoint"- not wrong I guess, but awkward and dumb. The main thing is "pay homage to". That's not right.

Bon Jovi failed to disappoint as he livened the crowd back up with "It's My Life".

"Failed to disappoint" twice in the same review? Yup.

To no one's surprise the crowd called on Bon Jovi for an encore.

"To no one's surprise". This guy is just cutting and pasting his old reviews.

To wrap up the night the band kicked off their performance with arguably their most...

At first I thought Bolduc was gonna do things right but then I saw "kicked off". How does that sound right to him and how does the editor not say, "Hey, Nick, you know..."kick off" means start or begin."

Third Eye Blind

"Can't Get Along" featured a face melting guitar solo...

This song ("Never Let You Go") is so popular that it should be considered a litmus test to prove to someone grew up during the 1990's.

More "face melting". And this song "Never Let You Go"- I've never heard it, but that thing about the litmus test makes no sense and is so awkwardly written- sentences like this are typical of Bolduc's writing.

To wrap up the night Third Eye Blind sang what is arguably their best song ever recorded "Semi-Charmed Life". The song has had a huge impact on American pop culture, being featured in many movies.

So "Semi-Charmed Life" has been on a few soundtracks? The thing about Bolduc's writing is you can tell when he's done a little "research". He'll mention that a certain song was VH1's 35th greatest metal song or something like that. I'm sure in this case there must be something on Wiki about all the movies that "Semi-Charmed Life" is in.

Glen Campbell

He dazzled the audience with his passionate singing and face melting guitar playing.

Glen Campbell was 75 at the time and he died not long after, but country music guitar playing was "face melting"?

Guns N Roses

The only two songs that really garnished a strong response from the audience...

"Garnished"? Maybe he means garnered.

DJ Ashton gave a face melting guitar solo.

The set list certainly contained a lot of cover songs from some of America's most talented artists and bands. For their sixth song of the night they sang "Riff Raff" a 1978 golden oldie by AC/DC. The band also performed "My Generation" by the Who.

I didn't even notice these mistakes; someone pointed them out in the comments section and the editor had to apologize. Neither of the two bands that Bolduc mentioned are American. AC/DC is from Australia and the Who are British.

The encore was well received and it was a good way to kick off the three hour performance...

Aaron Lewis

Longmeadow's favorite son Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis did not fail to entertain the packed crowd.

The two-hour acoustic show featured several tracks from his debut solo album "Town Line". The album is Aaron Lewis's debut solo album which was released in March of last year.

After the song Lewis gave his last good bye to his New England brethren and the show ended around 10pm.

A reader wrote:
Brethren? Really? Do you mean as in "brothers"...or is Aaron Lewis now a member of a religious sect?

Another reader wrote:
This guy is a hack.

It might seem like I'm being petty but it really bugs me that this guy is turning in these shitty articles filled with the worst clichés of music journalism. And it bothers me that the music editor never bothered to correct any of this. I could show a lot more examples of sloppy writing and reporting but I think you get the idea.

Aimee Mann "Charmer"

Two years ago Aimee Mann put out "Charmer" and like all her other records (other than "Bachelor #2", I guess) it got no attention and sunk like a stone. It's too bad, because she makes amazing music, and most of her songs- not just the singles- would sound great on the radio.

Where I used to live there was a radio station that would play "Save Me" and "Humpty Dumpty" and the place that I worked had the music pumped in from a music service and they played "Freeway", but that's it. So many great songs have come and gone and most people will never hear them.

Her albums "Lost In Space" and "The Forgotten Arm" had great songs but a lot of them were ballads or they were up-tempo but dreary (in a good way, I think) so I can see why they didn't get airplay. But "Smilers" and especially "Charmer" have a lot of fun pop songs on them.

I don't own "Charmers" (or even a CD player) but over the past year when I was in the kitchen or cleaning the house I'd go to Youtube on the IPad or my phone and plug it into the speakers and play songs; my favorites are "Gumby", "Disappeared", "Crazytown", and "Living A Lie". (All four video clips look the same- somebody filmed their turntable with the clear orange vinyl version of the "Charmer" album playing.) These songs belong in heavy-rotation on the radio (plus in the morning on MTV and VH1 (the early morning is just about the only time they play videos anymore).

But, anyway, if you're at the record store and you're looking for something to listen to, try "Charmer". If they don't have it there get another Aimee Mann album (they're all good, even the old ones from the early to mid-1990s). Or, if you wanna test things out first, go to Youtube and listen to "Gumby". If you like that song you'll like the whole "Charmer" album.

"The Real Ramona"

Here's a cool poster promoting Throwing Muses's 1991 record "The Real Ramona". I love the artwork for that album and all the posters that I've seen for it are beautiful.

Throwing Muses "Anthology" and "Purgatory/Paradise"

I've never seen these two releases in a store but I'd like to buy both of them, if the price is right. As for "P/P", I heard a lot of the tracks as demos and liked them a lot and I heard some of the new versions on Youtube and they're good too. I especially like "Cherry Candy", "Dripping Trees", and "Triangle Quantico". Plus it's cool what they did with the album version of "Speedbath". I love the original, but the new version is kind of like a remix edit. My favorite track, and I love both the old and the new versions, is "Clark's Nutcracker"; it's probably the best song of the album. If you get a chance listen to it on Youtube.

Early Throwing Muses band photos

Here are some old TM promo and magazine photos including one with The Pixies.

The Breeders "Last Splash LSXX"

Last year, 4AD put out "LSXX". It contained the "Last Splash" album, a live show, the EP B-sides for all the "Splash" singles, plus the EP that came out after "Pod", "Safari". "Safari" has four tracks, including an early version of "Do You Love Me Now?", and it's the last Breeders recording to feature Tanya Donelly and the first with Kelly Deal playing. I think that since they included "Safari" they might as well have put "Pod" in there too. "Pod" is a great record, full of songs that hold up very well, especially compared to other albums that came out in 1990. It has a couple shitty songs (like "Metal Man") but it doesn't sound dated. But, more importantly, "Pod" is a better album than "Last Splash", which has "Divine Hammer" and the big hit "Cannonball". "Splash" is uneven; it's hard to listen to the whole thing all the way through.

Here's what I would've put together instead:

"New Year"
"Cannonball"
"Divine Hammer"
"Do You Love Me Now?"
"I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You"
"Flipside"
"I Just Wanna Get Along"
"Hag"
"Shocker In Gloomtown"
"Drivin' On 9" (the best song on the album and one of my favorites of the 1990s)

The Breeders didn't make another album until 2002's "Title TK", but I really liked the album that Kim Deal put out as The Amps, "Pacer". "Pacer" had some great songs but the production and recording was shitty. I read a quote from Steve Albini, who worked with Deal on other records but not this one, and he was talking about what a hard time Deal had trying to make "Pacer" and get the sound right, and he said something like, "She spent $100,000 making a record that sounds like it was made for $50".

Anyway, the one time I saw "LSXX" in a store was last summer at Newbury Comics and it was around $35. If I ever buy it it'll have to be used and under $15. Like "Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly", I've got the songs, I'm just interested in the packaging. From what I've seen online it looks like the stuff inside is pretty good.


By the way, one of those pictures- the one that looks like a small notebook- I don't know if that's an actual release or something homemade. I took the sleeve from my cassette and covered a Whitman Sampler mini-box of chocolates. It looks cool and there's a picture of it somewhere on this blog.

New RJ Battles

Now that I'm re-launching "RJ Battles", I've got to think about what I want the focus to be. In the beginning, this blog was all about me showing and talking about my favorite record sleeves, and trying (and failing) to be like "Final Girl", my favorite blog writer. Now, after about 6 years, I've shown almost all the sleeve images I wanted to show and, while searching the internet, I found a bunch of cool pictures that I hadn't known existed (I'm thinking of the promo posters for Frank Black's debut solo album and Throwing Muses's "Red Heaven").



I still like looking at my old posts and seeing all the cool images, especially the Belly ones. I hate, however, reading my old posts. There are very few that I would consider good writing; there are about as many that I would consider fun to read. In fact, I'd love to delete just about everything I ever wrote here but that would take forever and maybe I'm just being too hard on myself.

I always get them mixed up

I always get these two mixed up. One is Skyler Stone, who used to be on a Comedy Central Show Called "Con" and the other is Ben Foster, an actor who's dating Robin Wright Penn.

Boston Terriers

Here are some cool Boston Terrier photos I found on the internet. One is from a calendar I saw last year; I think it was called "Dogs Underwater" or something like that.

"Let's Be Cops"

I wanna see "Let's Be Cops", even though I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be that funny. When I saw a trailer for it the first time during a showing of "Jersey Boys" it looked like it'd be good. All the other times I've seen ads for it, it not only didn't look as good, it looked unfunny.


"Jersey Boys" was good. The songs sounded good and it was an interesting story. I have to say- it was a downer when the daughter died. Especially since she wasn't a huge part of the story. It's like she showed up just so she could die. And in terms of the story, it set things up for a big recovery and comeback for Frankie Valli, but it would've been better if he made the comeback with a good song instead that lame "I love you baby/ And if it's quite alright/ I need you baby". In fact it's an awful, cheesy song and the horns are harsh and hideous when they play it.

(Not) Another Lonely Christmas

(For some reason, the paragraph breaks that I make aren't showing up in my posts.) Last September I moved to Texas to live with a friend of mine. There wasn't one big reason my I moved there from New England, just a lot of small reasons. Right around the top of the list, though, was that my friend, Craig, was living all alone there in a town where he'd only been for about a year and he didn't know many people. He had a couple friends from work and a couple friends from outside of work. He has family in New England but his immediate family live in Baltimore. I didn't like the idea of him spending the holidays by himself at his apartment.



He'd moved to the new apartment just two months before I got there. The building itself is in a nice neighborhood in the hills, away from town. There are some big houses on the dead-end street, including the one across the street that has a ten-foot metal fence around it plus an automated gate at the end of the driveway. I call it the Kennedy compound. Craig's apartment is big- a large living room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. When I got there, there was almost no furniture. He had his big memory-foam bed in his room with no nightstand or dresser. The dining room had a round table with four chairs and a big black desk, and the living room had an old loveseat and a TV with a small table under it. The thing about the apartment is that it had box windows. I don't know if that's the right name- when I first moved in I didn't have a bed so when I got tired of curling up on the loveseat I would make a nest in the window box in my room and sleep there. I could stretch out because the window was more than six feet wide. After I'd been there a month we got a few things; the next-door neighbors had old couch and a couple matching end tables. I moved things around so that Craig now has a nightstand with a lamp on it. The loveseat went into my room to go with the full-sized mattress from Craig's friend. That's it. That's all the furniture that we had up until I moved out two weeks ago. It's all we needed too because he didn't want to be stuck with a lot of junk when it came time to move. To make the apartment into a home I had to be creative with what we had. I found a blanket to use as a tablecloth, put my books in the living room window box, bought basil, parsley, and rosemary plants to go by the sink, and painted a picture of my parents' late Boston terrier to hang over the kitchen door. I kept moving the couch and TV, trying to find the perfect set-up. The apartment went from being a place to sleep to being a home.



When Thanksgiving came we were low on money. In fact, we had about $40 and $20 of it needed to go to bills. Thanksgiving morning I walked to the supermarket in town and bought everything we needed and at 1pm we started eating. We didn't have the money for a ham or a turkey so I used an old recipe: half a pound of bacon chopped up and cooked in a soup bowl. Then you pull out the bacon and cook up a head of cabbage chopped thin with some chopped onion and a lot of salt and pepper. I also diced a loaf of bread, toasted and flavored the pieces, and then made stuffing. For a side dish I roasted potatoes, carrots, and onions with cinnamon and a little soy sauce. We started with black olives stuffed with bread crumbs, parm, and fresh parsley. I got us a two liter bottle of Canada Dry to go with dinner and coffee for afterwards. I bought a pie shell that came in a pie pan but the filling I made myself with fresh apples, sugar, cinnamon, and butter and I got a package of Andes Candies for our candy bowl. Everything came out perfect. I'd wanted to do more, but for $20 I think that's pretty good.



When Christmas rolled around we were doing great and had a lot more money. Even still, I didn't want to spend any money on Christmas decorations. I decided I'd make them instead. But when I looked around the apartment there was nothing to use. Then I thought about our backyard. There's a pine tree over the driveway and I went out and cut off a bunch of branches. Then I thought about the big bush along the back fence- it had small green leaves and clusters of hard red berries that looked like holly. I used all that to make a wreath and used the extra to put over doorways and in corners. Then I thought of the phone book. The pages were white but the pages were bordered on the edge by different colors. There was red, yellow, blue, and green so I cut out strips of red and strips of green and used Craig's silver metallic tape from his work van and made the strips into a chain that I hung over the entry to the kitchen. I was so proud of myself- decent ornaments for no money, and after New Years I could toss them all away.




Everything was perfect. Then, the second week in December Craig's sister said that she wanted Craig to spend Christmas at her house with the family and that she was buying a ticket. I was happy for Craig. As much as I wanted to have a fun Christmas with him, more than that I wanted him to be with his family that he hadn't seen since the previous June. I didn't want to spend Christmas alone but I decided I'd make the best of it. He went to the airport on Friday morning. I was horribly lonely before Christmas Eve day. It was sunny there but it had gotten cold. Using the heater was expensive and though I'd planned to not turn it on I ended up using it a few times during the twelve days I was by myself. I didn't know anybody in Texas except for a couple of Craig's friends and none of them would be stopping by. I had the TV on the entire time and sometimes the radio- the oldies station- was on too, especially when I was in the kitchen. I made a lot of phone calls to family and friends and on Christmas Eve I cooked myself a big dinner. It was basically the same as what I'd made for Thanksgiving but instead of the cabbage dish I used the big pot to make chicken soup. While I was cooking the doorbell rang. It was our landlady who lived below us. She had baked banana bread and had two loaves for us, each wrapped in Christmas bags. That really cheered me up. I thanked her and went back in and put one in the freezer so Craig could have it when he got back. The other I had with coffee Christmas day and the days after.



I was so lonely the rest of the week and couldn't wait for Craig to get back. Finally he came back home. I'd tried to have a good time, and, really, I had the best time that I could've had. I just wanted to have Craig there, or to be with my family, just like I was every other Christmas, even when I'd lived on my own. Anyway, I guess me and Craig are going to try again this year.

In Cold Blood

Wait, one more quick post tonight. I've wanted to read "In Cold Blood" for the longest time. Every time I saw it somewhere- even at used bookstores- it was always around $10, so I waited. Finally, on my birthday, I found a softcover for $1. I read it, the first time, that night. I've read it now 3 times. For one thing, it's a short book. For another thing, it's perfectly written, researched, and edited. I'm sure it was labored over. In fact, I think it was written over a space of about 5 years, but it doesn't feel labored over. It's a smooth, light (that's probably not the right word) read. There are so many perfect touches and details.



The story itself is as interesting as any story could be, but the way that Truman Capote puts it together makes something that is so unlike anything that any other writer would ever make. "In Cold Blood" is probably the best book I've ever read.

First post of the new year

Hi, How are you? I've been away for a while- last September I moved out of state so that I could be closer to a friend of mine. I just got back to my hometown a week ago. It's funny: a lot has happened since this time last year, but everything is almost exactly the same. Last August 1 I moved out of my apartment and stayed with my parents for a month while I got ready for the big move.



Now I'm back at my parents' making plans for my next big move (which will, most likely, be right back where I just was). Anyway, this time last year I had just started watching "Breaking Bad" right at the time that it was starting the second half of its last season. It sucked me in and I became obsessed with it. I moved away the first week of September and once I got there I got my roommate hooked.



Every Sunday we tuned in and it helped that they played the previous episode right before the newest one. That made things clearer for both of us. The night of the last episode we ordered a pizza and a big 2 liter bottle of Coke. AMC had done a marathon that weekend and we watched as much as we could. We both like the finale- no complaints- but I've thought that there was no topping the arrest and shootout at the site of their first cook. That was so exciting and that could've been the end right there.



Now that I've seen all the episodes (I watched the 2nd marathon they did after Christmas and then my roommate bought all the DVDs so we could watch commercial-free) I have to say: I don't really like Walt. I was on his side and wanted things to work out but he was such a dick. Skyler could be annoying too but that was such a thankless role and she did the best anyone could do with it. I had two favorites. Mike. That was a well-written role and the guy who played him was totally believable. And Saul. Every scene he was in was awesome. He's a writer and I've wondered if he worked out a deal where he was able to write, or at least, polish his lines. I wish there was a menu option on the DVDs where you could select to watch just his scenes. I loved when he bought Jesse's house from his parents and when he told Skyler that Ted used her money to lease a new car.




Anyway, I got my roommate to like the old movies on TCM; we made it a habit to check out "The Essentials" on Saturday nights. He especially like "Lifeboat". I had big plans for Christmas but he ended up going to see his family and I was alone for 11 days in a cold apartment by myself (we had heat but it was expensive and I wanted to use it as little as possible). Next time I'm on I'll tell you all about my lonely Christmas.



My time away wasn't incredibly exciting. I watched a lot of SVU. I discovered "The Wendy Williams Show" and for a while it was my only reason for getting out of bed. My roommate has a thing for TruTV so we watched marathons of "Hardcore Pawn" which is as fake as wrestling. I like the family so I'm able to watch that show but I can't stand those tow truck shows. The only good show they have is "Impractical Jokers" but then, that's probably the best show on TV. It's definitely the funniest; nothing has made me laugh out loud more than that show. Alright, I'll talk to you later. Good night.